Why join the Waccabuc Landowners Council?

Since 1981, the Waccabuc Landowners Council has endeavored, through the participation of its residents, to maintain Waccabuc’s unique character and beauty. Our purpose is to involve all Waccabuc residents in promoting the best interests of the community through our various volunteer committees. WLC is also responsible for supporting and maintaining the Waccabuc Post Office building, a historic structure located at the heart of our community – literally and figuratively.

"A sense of home is a sense of belonging."

- Dee Williams

A letter to future members

Waccabuc is roughly 3½ square miles of fields, woods, hills, ponds, roads, and many historic homes. And of course one very large long pond, formerly called Wepac or Wequapaug in the Alqonquin language, later translated to Long Pond and now known to all of us as Lake Waccabuc.

What do you love about Waccabuc? What defines its “sense of place” to you? I will tell you that, from my perspective as Membership chair since 2006, Waccabuc is a community unlike any of the 6 hamlets within the 29 square miles that comprise the Township of Lewisboro. The Mead family, who originally settled here in 1776, was able to keep the property in the extended family and in its original state – largely farmlands – until the mid-1900s. An inn and a golf club were added in the late 1800s, but the family was able to resist the wholesale development of its environs as modern times came to northern Westchester in the mid-20th century. But more to the point, it is the sense of home – of community – that Waccabuc has, due in large part to the formation of the Waccabuc Landowners Council. Founded in 1981, its purpose is to encourage resident participation to promote the best interests of the community.

Over thirty years ago, WLC acquired and preserved our post office (built in 1890), which was threatened with termination by the USPS at that time. It still demands vigilant protection, and yes, its long term prospects are hazy. Yet WLC knows that Waccabuc might be a different place without our charming and convenient little “center” of town and its Saturday morning traffic jams. We could also have a different zip code if our post office didn’t exist; we might be subsumed into another Lewisboro hamlet and lose a crucial aspect of our identity.

WLC has made a continuing investment with its funds to help keep our roadsides clean, maintain/replace our wood road signs, care for and even occasionally replace our aging trees (over 125 at last count), landscape and maintain the main entries to Waccabuc and install seasonal plantings and decorations. All of this work is accomplished with membership fees and either physically done by or supervised by our many volunteers – your friends and neighbors.

Members of WLC work to preserve that special inclusive community character that defines Waccabuc through its dinners and other social activities, various children’s activities and cultural events at the Mead Memorial Chapel. We’re a hamlet with 2 and 4-acre zoning with no sidewalks – events such as these are instrumental in allowing us to get to know each other. New families are welcomed individually by a WLC member and given a “welcome bag” so that they may learn about Waccabuc’s history and what WLC represents.

I know a community group can’t be all things to all people. There are many demands on our time and money in today’s world. But I hope you agree with me that WLC’s contributions to our community are tangible and important in maintaining our hamlet’s overall look and feel. All residents benefit from these efforts, whether they realize it or not.

This beautiful hamlet of ours reflects shared goals and a history dating back more than 200 years. I would hope that all our residents would want to contribute something towards its future, toward this community.

Please consider becoming a member of the WLC. Everything counts, everyone matters.™